Dwight Gooden Rookie of the Year

Lore & Background

Gooden made his MLB debut on April 7, 1984, with the New York Mets at the age of 19. He quickly established himself as one of the league's most talented pitchers; as a 19-year-old rookie, he earned the first of four All-Star selections, won the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year Award, and led the league in strikeouts. In 1985, he won the NL Cy Young Award and achieved the pitching Triple Crown, compiling a 24–4 record and a league-leading 1.53 ERA, 268 strikeouts, and 16 complete games. The following season, he helped the Mets win the 1986 World Series.

Reader's Guide

Gooden attended Hillsborough High School in Tampa where he was teammates on the school's baseball team with Vance Lovelace. A native of Tampa, Florida, Dwight Gooden was drafted in the first round in 1982, the fifth player taken overall. He spent two seasons in the minors, 1982 in which he went 5-5 combined between Kingsport and Little Falls and in 1983 in which he led the Class-A Carolina League in wins, strikeouts and ERA while playing for the Lynchburg Mets. Gooden had 300 strikeouts in 191 innings, a performance which convinced Triple-A Tidewater Tides manager and future Mets manager Davey Johnson to bring him up for the Tides' postseason.

Did You Know?

• Gooden made the rare jump from High-A directly to the major leagues in one year, bypassing Double-A and Triple-A.
• He was dubbed "Dr. K" in reference to the letter "K" being the standard abbreviation for strikeout, which soon became shortened to "Doc".
• When he took the mound in the fifth inning on July 10, 1984, Gooden became the youngest player to appear in an All-Star Game.
• Gooden set the then-major league record for strikeouts per 9 innings as a rookie, with 11.39, breaking Sam McDowell's record of 10.71 in 1965.
• In 1985, Gooden pitched one of the most statistically dominant single seasons in baseball history, leading MLB with 24 wins, 268 strikeouts, and a 1.53 ERA.